{"id":1764,"date":"2012-07-22T20:00:57","date_gmt":"2012-07-22T18:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tale-of-tales.com\/bientotlete\/blog\/?p=1764"},"modified":"2012-07-21T06:17:06","modified_gmt":"2012-07-21T04:17:06","slug":"restraint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tale-of-tales.com\/bientotlete\/blog\/restraint\/","title":{"rendered":"Restraint."},"content":{"rendered":"

There has always been an implicit reductionism \u2014minimalism, perhaps, even\u2014 in our approach to making videogames. In the sense that we always wanted to make videogames that are not games. And being a game, in the strict formal sense, was \u2014and probably still is, for many\u2014 the core of what makes a videogame. In such a context it always felt like we were removing<\/em> things, stripping things away that many might have expected.<\/p>\n

But what we were really doing, was trying to figure out how to design videogames for a different purpose. Since we had no interest in competition or victory as subject matter, it was only logical that we weren’t going to use game-like structures. We needed to figure out other types of structures and interactions, to serve our own goals, to support and express the subject matter we did want to deal with.<\/p>\n

Not that we had a clear message. In fact, the capacity for ambiguity is one of the main features that attracts us to the interactive medium. Interactive works of art are more about exploring possibilities than making statements for us.<\/p>\n

We developed a design process that encouraged us to maximize the number of meanings and interpretations a work could generate. We deeply enjoy the confusing flood of ambiguities and uncertainties that comes out of such games. For us, this is a much more honest representation of reality than any sort of wisdom brought down from the mountain. We didn’t mind contradictions and dead ends. It was all part of the joy.<\/p>\n

But now I realize that this is difficult for many people. Even enthusiastic players of our games, while knowing better than to suggest a definitive interpretation, often still tend towards making sense of it all. And that is not always a satisfying activity in works that are not designed to make sense.<\/p>\n

Bient\u00f4t l’\u00e9t\u00e9<\/em> is a lot more specific than our previous games but it still contains an element of open-endedness, of throwing its hands in the air exclaiming “I don’t know! You figure it out!” even if there is nothing to figure out. For all extents and purposes, Bient\u00f4t l’\u00e9t\u00e9<\/em> is meaningless.<\/p>\n

In my future work, I want to reject this sort of all-embracing maximalism. This inclination towards allowing the game to be anything<\/em>. Because I think this results in the game being nothing<\/em> for many players. And it really shouldn’t be.<\/p>\n

So rather than adding whichever interactions that contribute to the wealth of possible meanings that the game can generate, I want to think more carefully about the player’s emotional experience. I don’t even want to make assumptions that any interactions are necessary. I want to create a pleasant, satisfying experience. With as little means as possible. Even without interaction, if that makes the experience clearer, the joy deeper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There has always been an implicit reductionism \u2014minimalism, perhaps, even\u2014 in our approach to making videogames. In the sense that we always wanted to make videogames that are not games. And being a game, in the strict formal sense, was \u2014and probably still is, for many\u2014 the core of what makes a videogame. In such […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tale-of-tales.com\/bientotlete\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tale-of-tales.com\/bientotlete\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tale-of-tales.com\/bientotlete\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tale-of-tales.com\/bientotlete\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tale-of-tales.com\/bientotlete\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1764"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/tale-of-tales.com\/bientotlete\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1841,"href":"https:\/\/tale-of-tales.com\/bientotlete\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1764\/revisions\/1841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tale-of-tales.com\/bientotlete\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tale-of-tales.com\/bientotlete\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tale-of-tales.com\/bientotlete\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}